Above The four faces of Gene Hunt (from left to right, top to bottom): Philip Glenister, as the original, in Life on Mars; Colm Meaney, in an unaired US pilot; Harvey Keitel, in the US remake; and Antonio Garrido as Inspector Jefe Joaquin Gallardo in the Spanish La chica de ayer.

AboveLife on Marsâs record shop scene in its various incarnations (from left to right, top to bottom): the UK original in Manchester; the unaired US pilot, set in Los Angeles; the US remake, set in New York; and the Spanish remake, set in Madrid.

Great post, Jack, this is a really excellent piece of work! (And thank you so much for mentioning La Chica de Ayer).

DG

Al Winston

As an American who had been suckered into watching ‘Lost’ and ‘Battlestar Gallactica’, shows with plot twists that the writers had no intention of resolving, it was pure pleasure continuing through the entire saga of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. It makes paying the extra cable fee for BBC America worth it. JJ Abrams and the larcenous writers of ‘Lost’ wrote layers of seeming literary corners that we eagerly anticipated to see explained, but there was never any such intent. They wrote ‘whatever whenever’ to hook audiences and then leave them utterly dissatisfied. No DVD or BluRay sales for them, and phrases like “From the writers of Lost” will have all the influence of “From the folks who brought you gonorrhea”. Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes may have been a little predictable, but they were so wonderfully enacted and thoroughly resolved that it makes one want to watch it again. Wish the Americans would learn to freakin’ write like this.

Victoria Thomas

The finale last night was breathtaking, almost literally! I’ve been hooked on this since the first episode of Life On Mars, but even I didn’t see the end coming as it did. Spectacular TV. For anyone who missed it, go out and buy the DVD, it’s money well spent!!

DG, thank you! Incidentally, I could not reply on The Railway Armsâ private messagingâI think you had sent me something a while back.
Al, I gave up on the long US series; yet there seem to be good American shows that disappear (Journeyman was a favourite). The networks are complicit, trying to sell the idea of complex series, leading viewers up the garden path. I hope viewers get sick of the over-promoted âbigâ shows, and the cancellation of Flash Forward may be a sign that some are tired of being suckered in.
Victoria, well said!

The Spanish remake of “Life in Mars”, called”La Chica de Ayer”, only lasted for one season on TV, in 2008. It was starred by Ernesto Alterio, as the policeman who travel in time. HeÂŽs an Argentinian-Spanish actor, very famous in both countries. The girl was Manuela Velasco, the TV reporter attacked by zombies in “[REC]” (2007) and “[REC 2]” (2009), two Spanish horror films that were remade in USA as “Quarentine”. “La Chica de Ayer” is a very famous Spanish song released in 1980, however the story was set in 1977. These years were very troubled in the Spanish Story: fascist dictator Franco ruled during almost 40 years and died in 1975, but democracy took several years in arrived to Spain, so the Spanish Police were adapting to the new liberties very slowly. In the last 70ÂŽs and early 80ÂŽs, drugs and crime became a very important trouble in my country, but the Spanish Rock and Pop Music were living very good times: nowadays, lots of those songs sounds horrible, but they were like “fresh air” in very tough days.